It's been a while...blame it on Jason!

Hey all!!

I haven't posted in a while, sorry--Jason told me I was posting too much and he wanted to be the next one...but it's BEEN TOO LONG and I'm REBELLING! We just returned to Maranatha after being home for the weekend, so we're sitting at the Sweet Shop "Starbucks" drinking coffee and hanging out...

Our first week with kids is over and done with--a little overwhelming...but definitely FUN! We had about 20 kids, which is the lowest we'll have all summer. We heard from a speaker, Greg Speck, who ROCKED, studied the book of Ephesians, and got to know our teen team of six college students....Pretty cool.



We also got to know the missionaries this week, who were a young couple from New Tribes Mission...played a rousing game of Phase 10 Dice and talked a lot about our pasts,our lives, babies and futures. What a testimony this couple has--seriously rocked my world. Missions is definitely a foreign (haha!!) topic to me and so I think this summer will be a learning experience in that respect, for sure! It was just amazing what a story these people had and what a passion they had for what they wanted to do...

This really is going to be a great opportunity for Jason and I to be immersed in youth ministry every day and feel what it feels like to work in full-time ministry. We've already learned a million new games, activities, songs, and ideas for getting kids talking and interacting. We played bang-ah a million times, had a digital scavenger hunt (complete with a slide show immediately following), went into freezing cold Lake Michigan, drank Oreo slobber for a laugh,
and made a movie with slides and videos from Maranatha Teens Week Zero.

Kickoff Week was a success...and although Jason and I had to miss the end-of-the-week-festivities for my Uncle Steve's funeral, we also got to see that when we leave, things continue, and leaving the Saturday Weekly planning to the team was okay. We came back and they had competed their task and are ready for Week One! So although we hope to get into a routine now, and not have to leave suddenly again, we can trust that things get done and our team is awesome no matter what happens!


So anyway-here we are--sitting in the Sweet Shop on a Sunday afternoon, reading, writing, and drinking coffee here at Maranatha...waiting for Week One to begin in a few hours and praying that you are all doing well wherever you are...hoping that you are having as much fun as we are over here in West Michigan!!